Guernsey Press

Recount confirms result of the general election

AFTER a two-day recount, the candidates who were declared as elected in the early hours of Friday have kept their places in the new States of Guernsey.

Published
Confirmation of the results of the 2020 general election as Bailiff Richard McMahon pins on a Royal Court noticeboard, as the law demands, the pieces of paper showing how many votes each candidate received. (Pictures by Adrian Miller, 28786609)

Volunteers worked for more than 30 hours to ensure all votes were counted true to voter intentions.

Jurat Stephen Jones was appointed principal scrutineer by the presiding officer, Bailiff Richard McMahon, to oversee the recount, alongside a cohort of Jurats.

Mr McMahon declared the results formally yesterday evening by pinning them onto a notice board at the Royal Court, as required by law.

‘I am satisfied that the final vote is robust,’ said Jurat Jones.

‘Inevitably there are a number of votes which have changed, however the positions of candidates remain the same. Changes only occur in the total number of votes each candidate received.

‘That is because any doubtful votes which the computer has highlighted have been adjudicated by a different team.

‘This time the adjudication was undertaken by my colleagues, who are all Jurats. Since all were reviewed by Jurats they will be different.

'We have attempted to standardise the result as far as possible.

Jurat Stephen Jones was principal scrutineer and said the results were robust. (28786621)

‘The entire team have been wonderful to work with. There have been no difficulties – some tiredness – but all just good morale.’

There were some changes to the process compared to Thursday’s original count.

‘Of course we started with all of the envelopes open, so we could hit the ground running. Since 10am yesterday we have been scanning around 24,500 ballot sheets.

‘What was extremely unusual about this was to have 22 inch pieces of paper to scan. Had we had a few more candidates it would have been a 30 inch ballot.

‘Anybody who has worked in an office will know that A4 is great for scanning and copying.’

Looking forward, the process has helped learn a rhythm for the next election in four years’ time.

‘I think we will be having a discussion about how to best move forward. Where this same method of voting is carried out, the lessons we have learned will help us in the future.’

Under the provisions of a 1948 law, four election candidates submitted a joint request to the presiding officer to hold the recount.

The law permits candidates with a difference of 2% of the total of 24,647 ballots submitted to request a recount.

Four of six eligible candidates made the recount request – Pierre Ehmann, Catherine Hall, Scott Ogier and Garry Collins – who were all within the required 493 votes of the 38th successful candidate Carl Meerveld.

Fergus Dunlop, who was closest to Deputy Meerveld, and Adam Martel did not seek a recount.